


Fair-weather friends

by Melethril



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: And a lot of friends, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Tony Stark, Post-Avengers (2012), Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Sad, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, tony really needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 03:53:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7298410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melethril/pseuds/Melethril
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here is the thing: Steve Rogers is not a fair-weather friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fair-weather friends

**Author's Note:**

> Still trying to come to terms with Civil War. Enjoy!

Here is the thing: Steve Rogers is not a fair-weather friend. He is the complete opposite: he is the ‘walk through hell with you’ – ‘until my last breath’ – ‘hurricane, snowstorm with an earthquake’ – ‘thunder, lightning, or in rain’ type of friend.

He is the epic, irreplaceable ‘I will never leave you and we will crash and burn together’ friend with the loyalty of a golden retriever, the patience of a saint and a unique blindness to anything that may stand in the way of your friendship.

Tony knew that now.

In a cold, underground facility in Siberia, Tony had come to know realize a few things as he had used parts of the thing that had strangled his mother to make his suit fly again. He had never hated technology. Since the age of three, it had been his solace. Even after he had shut down the weapon’s business, he had never hated the things he had built (the consequences of their very existence threatened to drown him on a daily basis, but he did not hate the technology itself; not even the Jericho), but this terrible weapon beneath his fingers, which he had strapped for parts, he loathed. Yet, he had been forced to use it, or he would have died, and that was not an option (though tempting).

Tony was an engineer and a man of science. His mind was based on trial and error, which originated from hypotheses that were either confirmed or disproved with time and experiments.

 

_Hypothesis 1a: The Avengers are Tony Stark’s friends and teammates (May 5, 2012)._

_Hypothesis 1b: Steve Rogers is Tony Stark’s friend and team leader (May 5, 2012)._

Between May 5, 2012 and May 3, 2015, both hypotheses had been confirmed times and times again.

Until the creation of Ultron.

 _Thor grabs him by the throat before they truly understand what happened (‘I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark’) and Steve lets him. They are disappointed and give him no chance to explain (_ they had not been close to an interface!) _and Bruce just let them, even though he had to have realized that something else must have happened._

 _Nobody is surprised (_ typical Stark _). Steve says that teammates/friends do not keep secrets. Bruce places his trust in Tony once more. Steve attacks unarmed Tony on Wanda’s advice_ (Steve took the word of a stranger who had literally manipulated their minds over Tony’s in a heartbeat) _. Thor helps. Vision is created. JARVIS is dead. After the battle of Sokovia, Thor praises him; Steve is nice to him._

_Tony officially leaves the Avengers._

 

 _Hypothesis 1a (amended)_ : _The Avengers are friends and teammates. Tony Stark is no longer an Avenger. Thor is fond of Tony Stark unless he makes a mistake (fair-weather friend?). Clint Barton is Tony Stark’s friend. Natasha Romanova does not trust Tony Stark. Bruce Banner is Tony Stark’s friend. Wanda Maximoff despises Tony Stark. (May 6, 2015)._

_Hypothesis 1b (amended): Steve Rogers is the team leader of the Avengers. Tony Stark is no longer an Avenger. Steve Rogers is Tony Stark’s friend as long as he agrees with Steve (fair-weather friend?). (May 6, 2015)._

The events of the last days caused him to amend his hypotheses again as they did not prove to be entirely correct. He clicked away the surveillance video of Steve breaking out the others and disappearing (to Wakanda, but Ross did not need to know about that).

_Hypothesis 1a (amended, version 2): The Avengers are divided into two factions. The faction of Captain America holds the majority of the members consisting of Steve Rogers, James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, Clint Barton, Scott Lang, Wanda Maximoff, Sam Wilson, T’Challa and possibly/probably Natasha Romanoff. The faction of Iron Man consists of James Rhodes (injured), Vision (loyalty divided) and Spiderman (underage). The position of Thor and Bruce Banner is unknown but likely support the faction of Captain America. Thor follows Steve Roger’s command. Bruce Banner will never follow anything supported by Thaddeus Ross. Clint Barton, Wanda Maximoff and Scott Lang despise Tony Stark. Sam Wilson, Natasha Romanoff and T’Challa do not trust Tony Stark. Hypothesis regarding James ‘Bucky’ Barnes is pending (biased data). James Rhodes is Tony Stark’s friend. Further hypotheses are pending in regards to Thor (absent), Bruce Banner (absent), Vision (divided) and Spiderman (underage)._

_Hypothesis 1b (amended, version 2): Steve Rogers does not trust Tony Stark. Steve Rogers is the opposite of a fair-weather friend. Conclusion: Steve Rogers is not Tony Stark’s friend._

 

Tony swallowed dryly as he came to this conclusion. Steve did not trust him; he had never actually trusted him. Steve and Tony tended to trade barbs on a daily basis, and while Tony was used to the kind of friend that loved and respected you but also criticized you if you went off the rails (which resulted from growing up around too many yes-men who would love to see you fall off your high horse). However, Steve was the opposite. He needed harmony and mutual support. He would support his friends in almost anything they did.

Tony was not naïve enough to believe that everything he had done since Ultron belonged to the ‘almost’ category. The only thing that Steve had approved of since had been Tony’s decision to leave the Avengers.

He could pretend that the realization did not hurt, but then Tony had never been able to lie to himself.

**Author's Note:**

> I know and Civil War has demonstrated that Steve is a good friend, but to me it seems that he does not really view Tony as a friend, or even a valid team member of the Avengers and that… hurts me.
> 
> Here is another thing that bugs me:  
> I heard a lot of people say that Tony creates his own enemies, but that's not how it works. Your actions are still your own. If you decide to murder people because somebody wronged you, makes you a murderer nevertheless and it is not the fault of the person who wronged you (also, I still do not see how Tony made Stane his enemy other than being the heir of the Stark name; Vanko still would have gone after Tony because of Howard…).  
> Also, the logic of 'Tony made weapons, so he's responsible for the death of everybody that died from them' does not work (apart from the fact that he did not deal with his weapons illegally; that was Stane). If some gang member shoots somebody with a weapon made by X does not mean that the death of that person is X's fault. Shut down weapon's manufacturing, create better regulations, hell, make it illegal to make or carry weapons, but X still did not kill these people. So why do people blame Tony for everything?
> 
> In Ultron, the derisive look of Steve when Tony says he knows that weapon dealer guy was just…Ugh. Tony has dealt with a lot of shady characters, in and out of politics, so the fuck what? What was he supposed to do? Shut down Stark Industries and put I don't know how many people out of a job?  
> And still, they all seemed pretty comfortable living in the building that Tony provided for them both in AoU and Civil War…
> 
> Sorry, I'm stopping my rant. I'm just frustrated. Tony is not perfect (he made his fair share of stupid decisions), but he tries so freaking hard to do the right thing and it still comes out wrong; and people love Steve no matter what he does (I just had a very passionate discussion with another person about Civil War and realized while all of Steve's actions can be excused, Tony always ends up halfway wrong).


End file.
